Saddam Is Dead

[marshbags]

A poignant obituary for a mass-murdering tyrant, based on the recollections of Saddam’s military nurse, brought to you by (who else?) the Associated Press.

Get out your hankies.

Military nurse recalls softer Saddam

"ST. LOUIS - A military nurse who cared for Saddam Hussein in jail said the deposed dictator saved bread crusts to feed birds and seldom complained to his captors, except when he had legitimate gripes.

Master Sgt. Robert Ellis cared for the former Iraqi dictator from January 2004 until August 2005 at Camp Cropper, the compound near Baghdad where Saddam and other “high value detainees” were held. Ellis, 56, an operating room nurse in the St. Louis suburb of St. Charles, said he was ordered to do whatever was needed to keep Saddam alive.

“That was my job: to keep him alive and healthy, so they could kill him at a later date,” he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for a story published Sunday. Saddam was executed Saturday.

Ellis checked on Saddam twice a day and wrote a daily report on Saddam’s physical and emotional condition. Saddam told Ellis that cigars and coffee kept his blood pressure down, and it seemed to work. Saddam would insist that Ellis smoke with him.

Ellis said Saddam did not complain much, and, when he did, his complaint was usually legitimate. “He had very good coping skills,” Ellis said.

Saddam shared with Ellis memories of happier times when his children were young. The former dictator described telling the youngsters bedtime stories and giving his daughter half a Tums tablet when she had a stomachache.

When he was allowed short visits outside, Saddam would feed the birds crusts of bread saved from his meals. He also watered a dusty plot of weeds. “He said he was a farmer when he was young and he never forgot where he came from,” Ellis said."

Makes you want to hurl, don't it...

OH! OH!

It also looks like the dairy will be making the nurse a lot of money along with the eventual book being published.

I hope he donates the proceeds to the Iraqi victims / various benevolent causes for the soldiers

It,s sure to be a best seller, how can buyers be

marshbags

Edited January 3, 2007 by marshbags

[helicoptor]

They are selling some Saddam T-Shirts on Ko San Road..... They're a bit tight around the neck - but they hang well

[Scott]

For those interested in the events of Halabja--I think that the overall prosecution of Saddam on genocide was related to his Anfal campaign. For those who are interested, they might want to research it. There were thousands of villages destroyed and upwards of 100,000 Kurds killed.

I am not quite sure why they didn't finish that trial. There is no way that they can justify killing that many people. In the Dujail instance, they were men and boys--who, under Iraqi law, were considered as being of fighting age if they are over 12 years old. Whether you like the law or not, that's the law in that part of the world (or was).

The killing of the Kurds--many thousands of whom were women and children--not enemy combatants--is genocide for sure. There is no way such an extensive 9-month campaign could go on without a strong and significant paper trail leading to Saddam. And, unlike Dujail, there was no trial.

Trying him fully on this charge would have been a substantative trial and helped to bring justice for the Kurds.

[longway]

You are taking this way too hard.

You're right, but if everyone would have taken it a little harder, Iraq wouldn't be in such a mess now. Someone should have straightened out the problems in his own country before taking on the world.

Rainman, I appreciate your passion for the Iraqi cause. Perhaps you would like to volunteer to go to Iraq and help those poor people. There are a number of NGO's in Iraq that would love to have you help them out. Or is it easier to sit in the safe confines of your home and just type passionate words on an internet site?

You know Rainman, I love people who sit on the sidelines and create great passion for a cause. Count yourself among millions. Can you walk the walk, or just talk the talk?

Oh, and by the way, I've walked the walk for 40 years of my life, in case you were wondering.

FP, while it is co0mmendable that you have 'walked the walk' for 40 years - kudos to you - you have not walked the walk in every situation imaginable, so this in no way gives you the moral highground when it comes to pontification on any and every subject. Were you in the peace corps for 40 years? The army? NGOs?

Rainman has a valid a point as any other, and just because he writes it from the comfort of his living room doesn't make it any less valid.

That Sadaam was loved by millions can't be disputed - first there are his own people who had never had it so good under his reign, then there were the millions who saw and see him as standing up to the Anglo aggressors, Sadaam being the defendor of the Arabs.

How can you or anyone else dispute that, or are you just in your comfort zone pontificating from the high horse you sit on? If you don't believe that he was seen as a hero by many then you do not know the first thing about Arabs, the Middle East or even Islam.

I don't dispute for a minute that Sadaam was loved by millions. So was Hitler. And yes, I've walked the walk. I was in both the army in Vietnam and trained soldiers and cops over the past 40 years in some of the world's great shitholes, which includes Iraq. I'm not trying to pump up my volume...but i do get tired of all these people who talk a good game but don't have the 'nads to go out and do it themselves. If that offends your sensibilities, tough.

doesnt this apply to gwb as well. he talks alot about fighting the good fight for freedom and justice etc, but he has never put himself in harm´s way either.

i think what ofends ur sensibilities more than anything is that you know that rainman has a point, rather than his lack of military experience, but whats done is done now.

Edited January 3, 2007 by longway

[rainman]

Rainman, I appreciate your passion for the Iraqi cause. Perhaps you would like to volunteer to go to Iraq and help those poor people. There are a number of NGO's in Iraq that would love to have you help them out. Or is it easier to sit in the safe confines of your home and just type passionate words on an internet site?

You know Rainman, I love people who sit on the sidelines and create great passion for a cause. Count yourself among millions. Can you walk the walk, or just talk the talk?

Oh, and by the way, I've walked the walk for 40 years of my life, in case you were wondering.

Actually no, i have no interest in going to Iraq and getting shot. I would have had no problems going to Iraq while it was peaceful and safe, however. But thanks to the invasion who's target was to find WMD's (oops, never found any) and liberate the Iraqi people we now have a country full of civil war and instability.

Let me quote you here, you say I love people who sit on the sidelines and create great passion for a cause. Count yourself among millions. Can you walk the walk, or just talk the talk? Your president is sending thousands and thousands of innocent US civilians to a pointless war for a reason that never existed. He himself never went to war, he was drunk throughout the entire Vietnam war safe at home.

Do you really think he would spend $300 Billion in a war to "liberate" the Iraqi people? That's a lot of money to spend on the people who's houses and lives you destroy with bombs.

You don't need to ask me if i can "walk the walk" or "talk the talk". You can start in your own country by not putting the "X" on the voting ticket besides "George W. Bush". But its a bit late for that now, isn't it.

So, pretty much the only option you have left is you can either start "talking" against the masses today or you can keep "walking" into the wrong direction for another 40 years.

And don't come running back saying Saddam tortured people. Your president is doing the same. Have you seen the news today? Take a look at:

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas...namo/index.html

# Placing a detainee in a darkened cell with the intent of interrogating him for 24 hours straight; the witness reported being told that then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had approved this technique.

# Keeping detainees awake for days on end with strobe lights and loud music.

# Dressing as a priest and "baptizing" a detainee.

# Subjecting a detainee to a lap dance by a topless female guard.

# Interrupting detainees' attempts to pray by putting fluid on their faces and telling them it was menstrual blood.

# Beating a detainee who said he had recently undergone abdominal surgery.

If Saddam is responsible for the torture his soldiers do, shouldn't Bush be as well? After all, Guantanamo was Bush's idea and he signed for it. Your comments and excuse, please?

[Jai Dee]

OK... enough of the off-topic discussion.

The original story was posted to inform our Thai resident membership (and guests) of a world news event that they may not have otherwise known about.

Comments about forum moderation have also been made in this thread... which is clearly against forum rules.

Now that the story has been told, this subject is now closed.

/Closed.